1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a support structure for a photoconductor drum onto a drum frame, and the present invention also relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copier or a printer that is provided with the support structure.
2. Related Art
A photoconductor drum in an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer or the like is uniformly charged by a charging apparatus, and exposed and scanned by an optical scanning apparatus to thereby form an electrostatic latent image on a drum surface according to image information. The electrostatic latent image is developed by a developing apparatus using toner as a developer, and visualized as a toner image. The toner image is transferred onto paper by a transfer apparatus and fixed onto the paper by application of heat and pressure by a fixing apparatus. A series of image forming operations in the image forming apparatus is completed by discharge of the paper with the toner image fixed thereto out of the apparatus.
However, the photoconductor drum is rotatably supported on the drum frame by a drum shaft that passes through the photoconductor drum. Therefore, a support structure has been proposed in which the photoconductor drum and the drum shaft are integrally assembled and are configured to be simply attached to and detached from the drum frame (photoconductor support housing). More specifically, a support structure has been proposed in which openings that enable sideward fitting of the photoconductor shaft bearing member are respectively formed in a side wall of the drum frame, and an aperture is provided that enables the drum shaft to pass through one of the openings. Operational personnel mount the drum shaft in this support structure through the aperture, and fit the photoconductor shaft bearing member from the side into the opening to thereby support the drum shaft in the drum frame.
However, although the proposed photoconductor drum support structure enables an improvement in assembly characteristics, the structure has a complicated configuration, and may require high accuracy in relation to the photoconductor shaft bearing member. Furthermore, the proposed photoconductor shaft bearing member is associated with an increase in the number of required operations or components and therefore results in cost increases.